We were playing table tennis and having a mess around with the rules of the game the other week.
We didn’t have enough bats to play in pairs, so I suggested we raided the kitchen for some pots and pans.

Today we played different variations of Table Tennis.

Traditional Table Tennis

Cooperation 5

There is a degree of coperation because you are agreeing to cooperate to play the game in the first place, but you are then competing against each other.

You have to have someone else, yu can’t play it by yourself.

If you are playing doubles you are playing as a team.

Creativity 1

It’s very simplistic isn’t it, if something gets thrown at you you are going to hit it away.

You might have to be creative to out fox your opponent, e.g. to do a move that surprises them, but this isn’t much creativity.

Fun7

It reminds me of childhood, and it is quite competitive. Competitiveness is

It’s simple and people are so stressed these days it’s important to be able to be childish, to have the chance to be able to have a chance to be 5 years old again, every now and then.

Table Tennis with pans

We wanted to play doubles but were short of bats to play with, so we had a root around the kitchen and found a frying pan, a tray and some tupperware lids.

Here is the groups review…

Cooperation 5

Creativity 2

The idea of using other things than a bat was more creative.

Fun 8

Because it gives an extra challenge and makes funny noises.

Unmistakable table tennis

This is an upside down version of keepy uppy, using table tennis bats and a table tennis ball. The aim is to keep the ball in the air for as long as possible, taking it in turns to tap the ball to each other. When a ‘mistake’ is made and the ball hit’s the floor, you place a star exactly where the ball landed, so as the game develops the trace of the mistakes turn into something potentially beautiful.

Mammadou developed this idea further last week by suggesting that we use the stars on the floor as the basis for a new artwork, joining the stars with chalk lines and finding something in the pattern.

Today the group found a giant speech bubble.

Here is the groups review…

Cooperation 7

Creativity 5

Fun 5

Brickbreaker table tennis

We also played an upside down version of Table tennis as suggested by Bill Harpe.

In this version you play with the table placed against a wall, striking the ball at the wall as in squash,

Before playing the game, stick a grid of post it notes to the wall, Two players take it in turns to hit the ball against the wall, aiming to keep a rally going, but more importantly aiming to hit the post it notes.

Two referees stand either side of the table, quickly removing each post it note as it is struck.

The game continues until all of the post it notes are removed.

Here is the groups review…

Cooperation 2

When we were playing we were playing quite independently, we didn’t communicate that much.

We were just working to get as many stickers as we can, we weren’t really working together.

Creativity 7

Fun 8

Today the group created custom icons for their PONG games.
They created the icons in Gimp and transferred the games to my phone to test that the icons would appear and that the games would open which they did.

Next week we will be looking at ways to make the games resize themselves tso that they play well on any sized device .

More importantly, we will be starting to think about how we can “upside down” Pong turning it from a competitive game into something much more cooperative and creative, can’t wait.

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We were playing table tennis and having a mess around with the rules of the game the other week. We didn’t have enough bats to play in pairs, so I suggested we raided the kitchen for some pots and pans. Here’s what it sounded like, sound recording by Mammadou.

Today we altered some coding to make images appear on an android based tablet. This was done by using processing to create and upload a multi touch sketch onto the tablet and then using our fingers to make the images appear. Hayleys multitouch drawing app Leslies Multitouch drawing app Mammadous multitouch drawing app